The Morton Downey, Jr. Show Information

The Morton Downey, Jr. Show is a syndicated American talk show presented by Morton Downey, Jr. which ran from 1987 to 1989.

Starting as a local program on New York-New Jersey superstation WWOR-TV in October 1987, it expanded into national syndication in early 1988.

Style

The program featured screaming matches among Downey, his guests, and audience members. Using a large silver bowl for an ashtray, he would chainsmoke during the show and blow smoke in his guests' faces. Downey's fans became known as "Loudmouths", patterned after the studio lecterns decorated with gaping cartoon mouths, from which Downey's guests would go head-to-head against each other on their respective issues.

Downey's signature phrases "pablum puking liberal" (in reference to left-liberals) and "Zip it!" briefly enjoyed some popularity in the contemporary vernacular. He particularly enjoyed making his guests angry with each other, which on a few occasions resulted in physical confrontations.

One occurred on a 1988 show taped at the Apollo Theater, involving Al Sharpton and CORE National Chairman Roy Innis. The exchange between the two men culminated in Innis shoving Sharpton into his chair, knocking him to the floor and Downey intervening to separate the pair.

During one controversial episode, Downey introduced his gay brother, Tony Downey, to his studio audience and informed them Tony was HIV positive. During the episode, Downey stated he was afraid his audience would abandon him if they knew he had a gay brother, but then said he did not care.

Reception

Downey gained a mixed to negative reception from television critics. The Washington Post wrote about him, "Suppose a maniac got hold of a talk show. Or need we suppose?" David Letterman said, "I'm always amazed at what people will fall for. We see this every ten or twelve years, an attempt at this, and I guess from that standpoint I don't quite understand why everybody's falling over backwards over the guy."

Because of the controversial format and content of the show, distributor MCA Television had problems selling the show to a number of stations and advertisers. Even Downey's affiliates, many of which were low-rated independent television stations in small-to-medium markets, were so fearful of advertiser and viewer backlash that they would air one or two local disclaimers during the broadcast.

Success

Regardless, the success of Downey made its host a pop culture celebrity, leading to an appearance on Saturday Night Live in 1988, WrestleMania V in 1989 (in which he traded insults with Roddy Piper and Brother Love on Piper's Pit), and later roles in movies such as Predator 2 and Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation. Downey was also cast in several television roles, often playing tabloid TV hosts or other obnoxious media types.

In 1988, Downey recorded an album of songs based on his show, entitled Morton Downey Jr. Sings (released in 1989). The album's only single, "Zip It!" (a catch-phrase from the show, used to quiet an irate guest), became a surprise hit on some college radio stations.

Decline

Over the course of the 1988"89 season, Downey suffered a decline in viewership, resulting in many markets downgrading its time slot; even flagship station WWOR moved it from its original 9:00 PM slot to 11:30 PM in January 1989, where it was followed by the then-new Arsenio Hall Show. However, following Hall's strong early ratings, the two series swapped time slots several weeks later, thus relegating Downey to 12:30 AM in the #1 television market.

The show was cancelled in July 1989, with the owners announcing that the last show had been taped on June 30 and no new shows would air after September 15. At the time of its cancellation, the show was airing on a total of 30 stations across the country (including WPHL in Philadelphia), and its advertisers had been reduced primarily to "direct-response" ads (such as chat line and phone sex 900-numbers).